View full sizeJamie Francis/The Oregonian/2010Aidan Smith, 4; Esme Veda, 4; and Grace Holloway, 5, with her dad, Paul Holloway, listen as Vickie Costello reads "Leonardo the Terrible Monster" during story time at the Central Library downtown.

Multnomah County officials announced a compromise today on funding the popular library system, agreeing to ask voters to extend the current levy in May and to approve a taxing district in November.

Officials will seek an extension of the current levy, which is 89 cents per $1,000 in property value, in May. Then they'll ask voters in November to approve a new taxing district that would cost property owners $1.18 per $1,000 in value.

For owners of a home assessed at $200,000, the levy costs $178 a year; the district would run $236, an increase of $58.

Officials have debated for months how to fund the 19-branch Multnomah County Library system, the nation's second-busiest. Voters in November 2010 cleared the way to create a permanent district.

Supporters of a district, including a crowd that showed up at a Multnomah County commissioners meeting Dec. 22, argued that it would free the library from the uncertainty of voter-approved levies.

But Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen said at the time that he worried voters would balk at approving a new tax, one untested here, especially in a down economy. A poll in July conducted by Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall also showed that only 40 percent of likely voters would support a new taxing district.

"That's why I'm not willing to gamble," Cogen said last month.

"I appreciate how much they care about the library," he said of district advocates, "and I know they mean well, but they're out of touch."

This morning, he sounded a different note, calling the new plan, "a prudent first step."

The decision carries some urgency because the existing levy -- which provides 65 to 70 percent of the system's $62 million budget -- expires in June.